Quiet Signals
by MyLittleJewMonster
Summary: When a new team member joins the group, things gets more complicated than Robin first would assume. A short story about Jerbin (JerichoxRobin) from the beloved Teen Titans


Quiet Signals

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Soo guess who´s become a Jerbin shipper - oh well what can you expect - they´re perfect! So yeah I got the idae to this short story and with some help from a friend I finished it up neatly. Hope you guys enjoy it^^

/

"So let me get this straight, you just forgot about the fact you brought a guest with you?" Robin rose a brow at his green friend.

"Yes! Well, no, I just forgot to _tell_ you. But dude, I was so caught up in telling him about how amazing our tower is and about the missions..." Beast Boy mumbled sheepishly. He'd run into a teen, around their age, who evidently had super powers, and immediately brought him home to join the team. It was irritating to Robin that Beast Boy would be so careless as to bring a stranger to their home, without knowing if they were dangerous. Still, Cyborg detected no weapons, and Raven seemed to be at ease. 'Jericho' seemed to be friendly as can be, on the outside at least. Robin didn't spend all those years training under the most secretive and suspicious member of the JLA for nothing, after all.

"I think it is wonderful!" Starfire chirped happily, hugging the blonde. "Welcome, friend Jericho!"

Robin couldn't understand the blonde boy. He was so quiet, and he looked so content. He seemed happy enough to join the team on a whim- didn't he have a place to live or family to be with? Well, most of the Titans didn't have those things, so maybe not. Jericho was dressed somewhat strangely, but of course so was everyone here. It made Robin feel...weird. A part of him wanted Jericho to leave so this weird feeling would stop, but secretly, Robin also didn´t want that to be the outcome at all. He didn't want the newest soon-to-be-Titan to leave. He wanted to get to know Jericho better. To be closer to him...

He snapped out of it, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. What was even wrong with him!? Why would he want that?

Huffing slightly at his own misery, he rested his head gently against his left arm while observing the cheerful conversation the other teammates were eagerly involved in, as Beast Boy told more about how he'd run into their new friend. Even Raven seemed to actually enjoy herself and even smiled once or twice.

 _And here I hoped at least_ _ **she**_ _would question this sudden decision,_ Robin thought to himself, lightly tapping his fingers against the table.

"Erhm dude, are you okay?" Beast Boy perked his ear up slightly while looking to him as he waited for an answer. One could easily see the glimpse of confusion and worry across his face, though his expression landed on a questioning stare. Soon there wasn't just two eyes glued onto him, but four- no, eight, twelve... All staring into his whole soul. Robin shook his head slightly, a small gulp following shortly. What was he even doing? Why was he this upset about something positive as a new member of the crew? He knew he'd gotten little sleep the last nights but come on! That was no excuse for all these weird feelings...

"It's nothing, I'm fine," He lied. Well, theoretically he was fine. Physically he was probably just a bit tired, since it was late afternoon. Mentally, _emotionally_...he wasn't sure.

He was quickly snapped out of his thoughts on how much he was lying, by a pair of hands doing some different movements in a certain pattern. The blonde boy was as quiet as ever, his hands forming several signs, as he seemed to be rather frantical about it, if not stressed. For a second, Robin was confused, before he realized it was sign language. Moments passed before Jericho seemed to be done, calmly moving his hands down to place them onto the table. His lips forming a soft and calm smile, a hopeful look in his eyes. The hope of being understood, Robin assumed.

Silence then filled the room, somehow more than it had when Jericho started using sign language, but now it was real silence. No movement, no sound at all. The only noises which could be registered were regular white noise- light breathing, common body functions and electric vibrations from all the different devices in their main room, including Cyborg.

"Are you alright, friend Jericho? Why did you move your hands like that?" Starfire asked with a concerned look on her face.

"I think that's sign language Star. Right?" Cyborg asked, glancing over to Jericho for an answer, only to receive a smile and nod.

Robin caught a brief flash of disappointment in Jericho's wide green eyes. He thought it was terrible to see something so bitter in eyes that were so- _wait, what?_

"-usually by someone who's deaf," Cyborg finished explaining.

"I assume in this case, he's mute," Raven interjected dryly. "Seeing as he has a guitar with him, and Beast Boy met him in a music shop." Jericho gave a second nod, now more eager than ever.

"You brought him all the way home, spent the whole afternoon with him, and _didn't_ notice he couldn't speak?" Robin raised his eyebrows at Beast Boy, who once again looked sheepish.

"Guess I talk enough for both of us?" The green Titan answered. "But, really? Dude, how did that happen!?" The little green one asked Jericho with a shocked expression on his face.

This lead to the blonde boy, with a small sigh, continuing to move his hands around in patterns to try and explain, but still no one understood. Robin wished he'd actually paid attention when Batman tried to get him to learn signing.

"We still don't understand what you're trying to tell us..." Cyborg shook his head. "Guess we'll have to learn it."

"Perhaps..." Star looked thoughtful, before getting up from her chair, walking over to Jericho. Without a word she grabbed his collar and pulled him into a kiss. As short and chaste as it was, it still left the audience startled out of their mind. Starfire calmly moved back after breaking the kiss as she sat down again, back into her own thoughts. The others cluelessly at each others as their brains still seemed unsure how to react. Jericho himself, seemed pretty fuzzed about it, but also embarrassed, as one would assume after such a sudden and shocking action. Though the soft, pink color of his cheeks implied he honestly didn't have much against it. Robin on the other hand, was a whole other story.

Without thinking, the raven-haired boy shot up from his chair, the movement making the poor furniture slam against the floor. Clenching his fists, he tried to gather his thoughts to analyze the situation. "Star... why would you...-" He asked, his voice half-way a hiss.

The girl leaned further back into her chair, seeming mildly terrified for a split second. "Robin..." She frowned. "You remember when I first arrived here?" She asked, receiving a small nod from Robin. "And you remember when you freed me and then I-" She stopped once again, though continued before it was noticable. "-kissed you and then left? You remember why I did that?"

Robin seemed to have calmed down, the chair was back up again and he had taken a seat once more. In the back of his mind he wondered why he'd reacted so strongly. It felt like jealousy, but towards who? "Yes... I do... You did it to learn our language..." The boy went silent once it finally made sense to him where she was going with this.

"Correct. Which is why I kissed friend Jericho, to learn his hand language," she stated in a bright tone.

"But Starfire, I'm not sure that's how it works..." Robin answered with a frown. "I get that you can learn languages that are spoken with that method, but sign language is not spoken."

"True," she admitted, "but it may be worth the try?" She faced the blonde. "Please friend Jericho, say something with your hands."

Jericho nervously looked to her and gave her a small nodd before doing just that. What he even signed about, none would know, except Starfire. Or not.

The girl furrowed her brows as she concentrated as well as she could manage, only to shake her head. "I still do not understand anything. I am sorry, friend."

"Maybe we all should get some rest for now. Just to clear our minds... and other things as well." Cyborg suggested as he got up, stretching his arms above his head. "Cause I don't know about you guys, but I'm already ready for bed."

The others responded by laughing and chuckling to try and remove the awkward tension around the table. One by one they got up as well, going to do theirs. Though there was one who still didn't have a clue of what to do, or where to go.

Robin sighed, stopping in his tracks as he glanced back at the other. It was his duty as leader to take care of new recruits.

 _Of course, I have to be alone with this... weirdo... - hey stop that!_ He mentally gave himself a slap for thinking such things. _I don't really think he's weird, he just makes me_ _ **feel**_ _weird... Seriously, what's going on with me lately?!_

"So uhm, looks like communication can be a bit rough here, huh?" He said, trying to clear the tension further. After a few seconds of silence, and a piercing stare (which to Robin felt like an eternity of torture), Jericho finally reacted with nothing less than a silent chuckle. "Well, luckily there's more ways to communicate, I assume you can write?" He asked, holding a brow lifted until the other nodded with a pleasant smile. Robin let out a silent sigh of relief. "Great! We'll take down all the practical information for your file tomorrow since it's kind of late. And, for now, until we all learn sign language, we can read what you right and pay attention to body- body language." He faltered slightly, a strange idea popping into his head at the thought of watching Jericho's body. He chuckled nervously. Why did he feel all warm and shaky all of a sudden!? Well considering the fact it'd been there for quite some time now, since Jericho had arrived, he couldn't exactly say it was anything new...

The blonde smiled again, patting Robin's shoulder once before following the Titans' leader up to a spare room. Robin was silent, in utter confusion.

 _What did he mean by that, the way he touched my shoulder? Did he even mean anything by it at all? What if he did?_ Robin wondered. _No... It was just a normal gesture. Just because not many people on this team communicate through touch doesn't mean he won't. Of course he would, he can't speak. I'm thinking way too hard about it- why am I doing that? Why do I care? It's nothing, just a touch on the shoulder to show appreciation..._

As the thoughts went around in the boy's mind, a tingling sensation grew in his stomach. He walked, silently hoping all these weird thoughts and feelings wouldn't last.

(...)

A few days passed, and the feelings only grew. After going through all the proper processing, Jericho proved his worth as a Titan, and then some. He didn't look it, but he was at least as skilled a martial artist as Robin, though he didn't seem to take any enjoyment from it. He was metahuman, but he was reluctant to show off his abilities beyond a very brief demonstration with Beast Boy. He'd taken over the changeling's body, using his shapeshifting powers for a few moments before dropping control again. It would be a very useful power in future fights, Robin knew, and he was very glad Jericho was on their side.

It became a regular inner conflict for Robin, trying to decide if he wanted to spend more time with Jericho, or none at all. The weird feelings got worse all the time. He wanted Jericho to like him, in a way that Robin didn't understand. Jericho was a very interesting person, and Robin wanted to know more about him, and for Jericho to know more about Robin himself in turn.

Besides the secret fighting skills, Jericho was also a very talented musician and artist. He played his guitar whenever there was free time. When they painted his new room, and he requested multiple paint colors, Robin was amazed to find the mute Titan painting a mural of a landscape on one wall, of a green mountaintop dotted with white and yellow flowers, a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. It was very well done.

Soon, the two of them found themselves in the newly designed room, just barely finished with the last of the decor and furniture.

"Phew, looks like we're done here. Finally." Robin wiped some sweat off of his forehead, sighing relieved as he flopped down into a nearby chair. The clock had just struck 1AM, which was evident in how exhausted both of them seemed to be. "Well Jericho, what do you think? Happy with the view?" Robin asked in a hum, nodding to the wall-sized window where the city could be seen, lights twinkling where some people remained awake.

The other nodded, writing down an answer on the notebook he had started to carry as a solution to their troubles with communication. Once he was done writing, he turned the page and showed it to the other boy.

- _Yes I can honestly say I enjoy my view at the moment. I enjoy it very well..._ -

Robin nodded to show he'd understood the answer, though his eyes told a whole other story. Confused and scared they flickered around the room. _Did Jericho mean something by that?_ He wondered.

- _Are you okay?_ \- Jericho had easily noticed the sudden change in behavior, eyes filled with concern.

"Yes! Yes, I'm okay. Just a bit tired thats it," Robin lied again, answering quickly. Gulping, he tried to keep himself from sweating any more. He didn't know what caused the feeling of heat in his body, but it seemed to be increasing.

- _Are you really, really sure about that?_ \- The boy held up another piece of paper, clearly not believing it a bit.

"YES! I said I'm fine!" Robin didn't mean to raise his voice, but he did. He quickly shut his mouth, feeling bad for shouting like that.

- _Why are you lying?-_ Jericho wrote. _-I know you act different around me, why is that? The others notice it too.-_

"I´m not! I... because... I..." Robin more or less ended up mumbling the last words under his breath, too ashamed to admit it out loud. He knew why he acted weird, he just didn't want anyone else to know.

Silence filled the room as Jericho stared intensely at the other. His eyes were always intense, piercing, making Robin feel as though the older boy was prying into his soul. After some moments had passed, he put the notebook and pen down before standing up, calmly walking over to Robin. He gave a single sign, one that Robin actually knew.

 _Sorry_.

Before Robin could react, Jericho moved even closer still. Gently placing his hand onto Robin's cheek, he but another one onto his hips, tilting his face up and holding him in place. His eyes softened, locking intensely with The Boy Wonder's.

Robin was, as many would be, frozen in shock and confusion for the moment being, eyes furrowing as he looked to him questioning. "Jericho... what are you doing..."

The other boy just shook his head, smiling as he leaned closer. Once their noses were touching, lips practically about to touch, the whites of his eyes went black. Just as Robin was almost sure he'd be kissed. Before Robin could even blink, Jericho's body became transparent, and went into Robin's. Yelping, the raven-haired boy fell back onto the floor, losing all control of his body but not his voice. Jericho was in his mind, he felt it, enveloping him. "Jericho... get out of my head..."

- _I need to know the truth!_ \- Words rang through Robin's head.

"Hey knock it off!" Robin struggled to gain control but in vain. He prepared himself for a backslash, but nothing more happened. "Jericho?" he didn´t know why, but he could feel the control ver his body weakening, as Jericho seemed to dive deeper into his mind.

After what felt like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, Jericho finally jumped out and returned to his original state of being. Robin rubbed the back of his head, trying to understand what even happened, groaning in annoyance. With narrowed eyes, he glanced over at the other as he opened his mouth to start telling him a thing or two (or a thousand, to be honest) about how wrong that was. Though when he noticed the boy´s expression, he just kind of shut up.

Jericho was silently giggling, his face redder than Robin had ever seen, a content smile on his lips.

"What?...what was all that about?" He eventually asked after getting himself back onto his feet, crossing his arms. He tried to stay angry, but failed.

Jericho just smiled, pulling out a piece of paper from the notebook as he scribbled what would seem to be a sentence. Once done, he went over to Robin to show it.

From there things went very quickly. Robin freaked out when realizing what the words said, Jericho just chuckled silently and moved closer. And before Robin knew it, their lips were softly pressing together.

 _What the hell!? I need to push him away this is not right! It's really not right!...Right?_ Robin's thoughts went wild as his lips automatically followed the other's movements. After a moment or two, he seemed to calm down and just kind of went with it, his hands gently resting against the older boy's chest. He felt strong arms being wrapped around him, pulling him closer. This resulted in Robin's own hands trailing up and around Jericho's neck.

Eventually Jericho broke the kiss to catch his breath, foreheads resting against each other. Robin himself used some time to gather his thoughts - and fully realizing what had just happened. With a soft sigh, he leaned closer and rested his head against Jericho's chest. "I guess I am really messed up..." He murmured. "But that means we're messed up together." He finished off the sentence with a small smile planted onto his lips as he felt fingers gently running through his hair.

Jericho gently shook his head, disagreeing. But, it didn't matter. Messed up or not, he cared for his teammate, and now knows Robin felt the same way. Jericho becoming a Titan might be the best thing that happened to either of them.


End file.
